Handungoda Tea Estate

You can take a (free) and incredibly educational tour of this beautiful tea estate in the hills surrounding Koggala. The legendary Virgin White tea, a delicate brew created from the youngest and tiniest leaves, is one of more than twenty-five varieties of tea that you may sample and learn about here. Workers here harvest only 150 grams of virgin white leaves every day, compared to the 23 kg of black tea that the average large plantation worker picks in the same amount of time. From the 131km marker, you can see signs pointing 6km inland from the coastal roadway.

An island tea business veteran, Herman Gunaratne, owns Handunugoda. The Suicide Club: A Virgin Tea Planter’s Journey, Gunaratne’s autobiography, is an incredibly interesting and enjoyable book about his life in Sri Lanka, tea, and the decline of the British Raj up until the present day.

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